The trial against senior New York City Democrat Brad Lander. stemming from his arrest during an attempt to inspect rooms holding detained immigrants, involved six hours of litigating elevator logistics in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday.
Lander, the former city comptroller now vying for Democratic incumbent Dan Goldman’s congressional district, which encompasses lower Manhattan. north-west Brooklyn, was taken into custody on 18 September last year at 26 Federal Plaza.
He was ticketed on a violation for allegedly blocking an elevator bank on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza. the location of major immigration court located in New York City. Ten other local elected officials were also arrested.
Lander testified in his defense on Wednesday afternoon. When Lander was officially called to the stand, he sprang up, smiled at the gallery, and buttoned his jacket.
Lander said he was at 26 Federal Plaza in his official capacity as comptroller, given that agency’s role in overseeing city agencies – such as the fire. building departments. There was concern that conditions in the reportedly overcrowded hold rooms were dangerous.
When officials’ demands to inspect these rooms were rebuffed, the group sat, still intent on gaining access. The trial unfolded slightly surreally – with an emphasis on the detail of alleged elevator blocking.
“Were you trying to block the elevator?” Lander’s attorney, Deirdre von Dornum, asked.
“No,” Lander said, stating he and other officials were there to examine the hold rooms. “Our purpose was not to block the elevators.”
Lander said that the elevator closest to him “did not ding, or open, during that time”. He said that if the lift alerted, “I would have moved”.
If anyone had tried to use the elevator, Lander said, “they could have stepped over me pretty easily”. If someone with mobility impairment needed to use the elevator, Lander said, he would have moved out of the way.
Attorneys also weighed in.
“Today’s trial is for the court to decide a narrow issue: whether on September 18, 2025, Bradford Lander unreasonably obstructed the usual use of the elevators. the elevator lobby on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza,” Ariel Cohen, a prosecutor, told magistrate judge, Henry Ricardo.
“He ignored multiple warnings to move and instead started chanting the phrase, ‘We shall not be moved.’”
Michael Bass. one of Lander’s attorneys, insisted that his client “did not block an elevator on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza. He did not block an elevator lobby. He did not block an elevator bank.”
Lander, he said, went to the 10th floor to inspect ICE’s “makeshift” detention facility. “He was the New York City comptroller then, and he was concerned for the safety of his constituents.”
Bass also admitted that the facts at issue seemed small – this was a trial about alleged elevator blocking –. that these proceedings portended to a deeper issue.
“Arrest is the bludgeon of suppression,. this case is yet another example of the administration’s suppression of political dissent,” Bass said.
Lander, along with several other local elected officials, went to this sprawling tower – which holds an Immigration. Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) field office – amid Donald Trump ’s crackdown on immigrants.
As agents started arresting people at immigration court – which Lander’s legal team describes as a “stark reversal of a decades-long federal practice of largely refraining from conducting arrests at immigration courthouses” – the number of arrestees overtook capacity at processing. transfer facilities.
ICE directed its field offices to use their respective “hold rooms” to detain immigrants beyond the previous maximum length of 12 hours to three days. Lander’s attorney said in court documents. ICE officials also said that detained immigrants could be held still longer in “exceptional circumstances”.
While the people held in 26 Federal Plaza hold rooms were “rarely detained for more than one day” – with the January-April 2025 average being six hours – mean detention time ballooned to 103 hours by mid-June 2025. Lander’s team also claimed.
Some immigrants detained in the 26 Federal Plaza hold rooms sued, claiming overcrowded and squalid conditions.
Lewis Kaplan, a Manhattan federal court judge, ruled that the Department of Homeland Security. ICE had to improve the conditions. On 17 September, Kaplan sided with the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction “to protect those swept up in the administration’s program. sent to the 26 Fed hold rooms from unconstitutional and inhumane treatment”.
Lander. 10 other elected officials decided to review the 10th floor hold rooms “and ensure that ICE was following the order … and federal and state law”. The group was allowed inside 26 Federal Plaza after Lander told security officers that they were elected officials.
They were not permitted to inspect the hold rooms,. an officer said that they could remain there as long as they didn’t bang on the doors. The group agreed to stop banging on the doors leading to the hold rooms and sat chanting and singing.
At one point, an officer unexpectedly warned: “If you refuse to leave under federal regulation, you’re going to be arrested. You are violating the law right now. You are protesting illegally.”
Shortly after this warning, Federal Protective Service officers began to arrest the elected officials, giving them tickets. Lander’s ticket on a violation claimed that he “block[ed] entrances, foyers, and corridors”.
Federal officials offered in October to drop the violation,. one of the conditions was that “not protest inside any federal building for a period of six months”. Lander refused.
The judge will issue his verdict on Thursday morning.
Discussion
Sign in to join the thread, react, and share images.